"America has two great dominant strands of political thought - conservatism,
which, at its very best, draws lines that should not be crossed;
and progressivism, which, at its very best, breaks down barriers that
should never have been erected."
-- Bill Clinton, Dedication of the Clinton Presidential Library, November 2004

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Giuliani has launched a new site that - aside from the actual omission of the words "president" and "2008" - looks pretty much like a campaign website. The man is going to run. And he's going to get clobberred in the GOP primary. I still think he should run as a Democrat; after all, even Kucinich and Sharpton enlivened the debate in 2004 and brought substance, though they hadn't the remotest chance of winning the nod. I am aware that my position on this is controversial.

Discussion

Aziz,

That most definitely is a campaign-style website. I wouldn't be surprised if, when Rudy declares (I'm assuming now), the "Solutions America" stuff disappears and is replaced with "For President" or some such thing. I mean, it's basically complete.

I disagree that Rudy should run as a Democrat. For one thing, his record in New York City has a lot of Democrats up in arms, particularly those who are sympathetic to minority communities. Rudy would have about as good of a chance in the Democratic primary as he would in the Republican, maybe a little worse in fact.

The thing you have to consider with Rudy in 2008 is that for his liberal positions on abortion, gay rights, and gun control, there's not altogether much he can do about them as President. He can say pretty simply, when he declares, that he is pro-choice but will nominate strict constructionists to the Supreme Court. He can say he is pro-gay rights but believes that marriage should remain between one man and one woman. He can say that he's for gun control at the community level but that he is an ardent defender of the 2nd Amendment and will never allow anyone to confiscate Americans' guns.

Before you know it, Rudy's liberal social positions take a back seat to the fact that he's tough on crime, has demonstrated the ability to remain cool in times of crisis, and brings to the White House a foreign policy shaped by events he watched with his own eyes in his own city on September 11, 2001. Not a bad Republican candidate for President, eh? It would be tough to beat him, let me tell you.

I'd certianly be tempted to (but not guaranteed to) vote for him. The only Democrat running against him who I'd definitely vote preference over him would be Gore. Any other Dem - Warner, Edwards, Clinton - is going to have to make a case.

But if RG runs as a GOP, then he faces one huge obstacle to my vote. That is the incompetence of the present Administration. If he cleans house, then problem solved. If he "inherits" - then fugeddaboutit.

For one thing, his record in New York City has a lot of Democrats up in arms, particularly those who are sympathetic to minority communities.

this is an important point. but many of my friends who are pretty convential lib dems think that "tough on crime" quasi-repubs like rudy and bloomberg have been good for the city. the issue though is that i'd bet with you, the black caucus would veto him because of his bad relations with the black community (my impression is that he didn't have a problem with NYC large asian community, and far less so with latinos, so 'minority' here means black i suppose).

I understand why you do it, but I am disinclined to lump Giuliani and Bloomberg together as "quasi-Republicans." In Giuliani's case he's simply more liberal on some social issues than the Republican base, but he's a Republican. Bloomberg readily admits that he's been a lifelong Democrat and that he only ran for mayor as a Republican because he didn't have to go through a grueling primary that way.

tim, you make a substantive point. nevertheless, i would argue that rudi is not must more liberal, e.g., olympia snowe or arlen specter liberal, he's lincoln chafee liberal. as for taxes and the like, i don't get the impression he is a hard-line fiscal conservative! my only point here is that outside of new york city rudi would likely have been a moderate democrat. i mean, evan bayh is probably more conservative than he is!

Giuliani was an effective, "knock heads" executive while mayor, and he won enormous sympathy and respect for his conduct after 9/11. He was the only political figure I can think of who expressed, publicly, sincere *grief* over what had happened, and who frankly and fully acknowledged the human loss without a hint of self-aggrandizement or political self-seeking.

The first comment I'll make about Giuliani is that I don't think he'd make a good President. Being mayor of NYC is the ultimate exercise in herding cats. A tough, take-no-crap, roll-up-your-sleeves hands on executive is just what is needed there. I'm not sure that style will fit the office of POTUS very well.

Giuliani also has a deserved reputation for riding roughshod over certain populations in his efforts to clean up NYC. His tenure is not remembered with universal fondness.

As a practical matter, Giuliani also has two very large hurdles to jump to be a viable candidate. One hurdle is with social conservatives, and is known by the names of Donna Hanover and Judy Nathan. The other hurdle is with civil libertarians, and goes by the names of Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo.

Archives

Obama 2008 - I want my country back

About Nation-Building

Nation-Building was founded by Aziz Poonawalla in August 2002 under the name Dean Nation. Dean Nation was the very
first weblog devoted to a presidential candidate, Howard Dean, and became the vanguard of the Dean netroot phenomenon, raising
over $40,000 for the Dean campaign, pioneering the use of Meetup, and enjoying the attention of the campaign itself, with Joe Trippi
a regular reader (and sometime commentor). Howard Dean himself even left a comment once. Dean Nation was a group weblog effort and counts
among its alumni many of the progressive blogsphere's leading talent including Jerome Armstrong, Matthew Yglesias, and Ezra Klein. After
the election in 2004, the blog refocused onto the theme of "purple politics",
formally changing its name to Nation-Building in June 2006.
The primary focus of the blog is on articulating
purple-state policy at home and
pragmatic liberal interventionism abroad.